Tag Archives: Cons and Faires

Busy Bee Buzzing Blissfully

So much going on. Over the weekend, Thursday the 22nd through Monday the 26th, I was fi/fantasy/media/costume convention and actually did stuff. This year was also a year of firsts, I was not working the con, I paid to attend, I was a contestant in the masquerade costume contest (in a group), the group I was in, WON Best in Show for Presentation!

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There was drama within the group that caused stress for a week now, but I think that is over with. I do love costuming and theatrical presentations. I always have fun.

On other fronts, the SteamFaire project is moving along nicely. I was able to do a great deal of meet and greet at BayCon and had nothing but positive responses from everyone. With over 40 registered users on the SteamFaire.com website I am moving forward… wait for it… full steam ahead. Sorry, I couldn’t help it.

I have called for a meeting on June 8th to move the planning to an open forum for discussion and input. I expect there will be a great deal of creative and interesting things brought up at the meeting.

Tomorrow, back to the gristmill. I have to something about that.

~FBJ

BayCon 2008

03MAY2008-0001It has been a long time since I have been to a con as a patron. For that matter it has been a long time since I have been to a con for more than the costume contest.

I am torn, I have many fond memories of conventions, I also have many negative ones. I am seeing a lot of familiar faces, and I am happy that they don’t recognize me. It cuts down on the uncomfortable “how do I get away from/ignore this person”.

So far it has been fun. I got here about 3:00 (30 minutes late for a panel I wanted to attend [steampunk]) but I enjoyed the rest of the panel and had opportunity to promote my SteamFaire event, which was well received, to a room full of steampunks. I also met the people promoting the SteamCon in Seattle. Looks like their may in fact be some cross promoting of events, and a reciprocal attending of events.

As this is a 4 day event I shall be posting when time permits.

TTFN
~FBJ

A new project is developing

AirshipPilotAs many of my friends and associates know, I have been producing events for many years. Over the years I have toyed with the idea of producing an annual historical reenactment event. This is a tough field to get involved in with most of the established genre.

There is a genre that does not currently have that many organized events devoted to it. There are hundreds of fans in the local area, and many more in the region. I don’t want to go into it to much right now, but I am developing a position sheet and project outline. Once the paperwork is done I will post them and move forward with more info on this site.

I will go so far as to say that the concept is for a Steampunk Faire to be held somewhere in the greater San Francisco Bay Area with the possibility of additional events along the west coast or nationally. Another aspect is a Guild association of some kind. The guild portion I need to ruminate on a bit more.

I am very familiar with kind of operation after years of convention and ren faire work in all levels from volunteer to board member, and from actor to guild master and guild association member. There are many drawbacks to the fire format over the convention format, however, there are a lot of benefits to this direction as well. It sound crass to many of the participants when you start talking money and cost / benefit analysis, but it is a business, and I do intend to make a profit, otherwise the event wouldn’t keep going.

A group up in Washington state is starting a convention in the genre, but they opted to go the 501(c) route. Having been down that road and knowing what ultimately happens, I am not going to contact them for collaboration as I original wanted to. I wish them well and will do my best not to interfere with there operation. I do want to go to there event.

~FBJ